ADD moms
As I've posted about adderal before, I have not taken it since finding out I am pregnant at 5 weeks.. I'm 26 weeks now and I have struggled thru but I know its the best thing for my baby. I want to nurse but I'm extremely worried that I will struggle w my job after I come back from maternity. I've been having a difficult time now and am just skating by (I work in sales). I know nursing is best for my baby as well, but idk..any other ADD mommas out there have any advice for me?
Comments
Yes ladies, I am more than happy to answer questions or act as a sounding board for you regarding this subject. Not only do I struggle w ADD myself, I am a resident doctor in womens medicine and see many "real life" examples of women struggling w add on and off meds AND pregnant, everyday.
First of all.. I totally understand your struggle. I mentioned this to @lillaydee when her and I first talked, most people, people who do not truly struggle with legitimate attention deficit problems really cannot relate and unfortunately that means that we hear a lot of things like "get over it", and "just do it" or we deal with insinuations about being lazy or careless. Thats wrong. It is incredibly important that YOU know that if you have been formally diagnosed with attention deficit that your brain functions differently than a healthy brain and things that are simple for others are incredibly difficult for you, end of story. (truly, telling someone with ADD to "just focus" is like telling someone with cerebral palsy to "just walk straight", not only is it rude and insensitive, it's impossible) So, especially during pregnancy, make sure you are not too hard on yourself in regards to what you are accomplishing outside of the things you absolutely must accomplish.. For instance, dishes.. do not feel awful because the thought of doing dishes is simply too much to bear after you have spent the entire day trying to not only keep your eyes open, but complete all of the tasks required of you at work with some gusto. On top of the add that uterus of yours is putting pressure on your spinal cord which of course connects to your brainstem which of course connects to your brain so you are even more of a groggy zombie than usual haha. We can talk more about psychological strategies for accepting and committing if you want but I'll get to the important stuff now..
Alternative meds.. ask your doctor about wellbutrin, it is technically an antidepressant but it works on the same pathway as add meds and is used to treat adult attention deficit ALL the time. It is not a stimulant and is prescribed to pregnant women in this situation far more regularly than your add meds. Wellbutrin is secreted in the breastmilk however it is far safer for the baby than if you began taking ritalin or adderall after the little one was born and exposed him/her to THOSE meds postpartum. At this point, you are beyond the halfway point in your pregnancy and structurally the baby is totally "formed". The greatest concerns with add meds in pregnancy are growth inhibition and the possibility of attention problems later in life. However, the statistics are based on studies that have been done on rats and rabbits that were given exorbitant amounts of these medications for the duration of pregnancy. Just.. no real studies.
My recommendation to you is to ask your doctor about wellbutrin NOW throughout the rest of your pregnancy and after and then talk to him about the possibility of adding "simple" adderall or ritalin after the baby is born. By simple I mean, NOT XR. Simple adderall has a much shorter half life and therefore its consumption can be sort of scheduled around breastfeeding/pumping and can be taken as needed. However, I would be willing to bet you see a significant improvement with the wellbutrin..Also, withdrawal from wellbutrin is minimal if there is any withdrawal at all so if you decided that you didn't want to breastfeed afterall or it just didn't work for you, you wouldn't likely have to wean the baby away from breastmilk (with adderall or ritalin you would)
Sidenote, I am 28w along now.. I found out I was pregnant at 5w and didn't take ANYTHING until I was into my second trimester. At that point, I developed a plan with my doctor and I began taking wellbutrin again and was prescribed simple adderall to take as needed (2x a week usually). I will stop taking the adderall alltogether at about 34w but will continue using wellbutrin for, well.. maybe forever? I am considered a high risk patient and I get regular ultrasounds, my little girl is measuring a bit big, all of her little parts are perfect and she's as happy as a clam - and so am I
I'm TOTALLY rambling, I just know how hard this is and I want to make sure you know that you're not alone, you're not a bad person for wanting to feel normal and you CAN create your own plan with your doctors during pregnancy. Please do not hesitate to ask me any questions.. I'm happy to discuss the actual scientific part of things as well as the psychological part and some strategies for getting through this as I mentioned earlier.
Hope this helps and you have not fallen asleep or needed an intermission during reading
Please stay in touch if you'd like.